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Published: June 28th 2007
Our paridise
shame about the clouds Saturday 23rd
I’d given up on kite surfing and Dan, Claudie & Lucy invited me to go with them to the Northern coast. Following 5 matatu (minibus), a ferry and a bus up the coast, we arrived in Watamu. We’re staying in a basic hostel and I’m sharing with Lucy, so finally she doesn’t have be the gooseberry!
We went for a wander to the beach and got bargaining for a fishing trip (for them) and snorkelling for all.
Food at the hostel took forever to come (like Malawi, Dad, but worse), and it was the wrong order when it did finally arrive. We saw him run out to buy an onion to make my order, which wasn’t worth eating in the end. Lots of mosquitos about, so hid under Claudie & Dan’s net to play cards before bed.
Sunday 24th
Rained in the morning, so we spent it in the morning in a café. Once the rain stopped, we found another beach, which was deserted, and I tried teaching them a few rock & roll acrobatic moves and they practiced their gymnastics. I was very impressed with their backflips.
Went for an early
pizza dinner at Come Back Club - amazing cheap food. Once again played cards & then bed!
Monday 25th
The others went on their fishing trip, but didn’t catch anything and felt sick from their malaria tablets. I went for a walk along the headland instead.
There was a cockroach in our room, which meant a terrified Claudia refused to come in.
Tuesday 26th
We did a snorkelling day trip, but the water was very rough due to the wind, and the boat left us in the middle of the ocean whilst it took the seasick passengers back to the shore. We stopped at an island with mangroves to have an amazing fish barbecue.
Wednesday 27th
We went diving, but didn’t see any sea turtles :-( but did see some new fish, such as the 1ft Crocodile Fish and 2 inch Dragon Fish, both of which are camouflaged and lie flat on the sand. There were also thousands of little fish, as well as Lion Fish and Stingray.
I found the others practicing their acrobatic skills with some even more impressive locals. We then visited a school/orphanage, and I donated all of
Barganing with John the baptist and Julius
"what will be the price?"
"pole, pole!- Slowly slowly we will get to that, no rush!" my unwanted clothes, toiletries and medical kit. The children sang to us, and Dan entertained them with his beatboxing and animal impressions.
Unfortunately it was raining hard, but we were cheered up by Come Back Club specially cooking a vegetable curry (not on the menu) that we’d requested on Sunday. Obviously, more cards were played!
Thursday 28th
Got up, packed and went for a chapatti and mandazi breakfast. I brought a lime and had the chapatti with it and some sugar - mmmmmm :-)
At 11am, boarded a matatu all the way to Mombassa, or so we thought. At Kalifi, they told us that it had broken down, and we had to change into another run-down one, in which the metal frame of the chair dug into our backs. Luckily we insisted on not paying until we arrived in Mombassa, and in the end they took us directly to the train station.
Bought tickets and left our luggage at the station, whilst we went to the supermarket to buy food for the journey. Onto the boiling train at 6pm, and into a Hogwarts Express style compartment for four. I finished listening to Claudie’s tape of
Dan gets a shave
and they were going to leave just the moustache!! George Orwell’s 1984 as I fell asleep.
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